Strike continues until FG implements offers, says ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Thursday said
the ongoing strike would not be called off until the Federal Government fully
implemented all the offers it made to the union after their last meeting.

The public university lecturers said they were tired of
Federal Government’s antics of making unfulfilled promises, insisting that the
strike would be called off after they got tangible evidence and concrete
actions that the offers made to them by the Federal Government had been
implemented.

The National President, ASUU, Prof. Biodun
Ogunyemi, in an exclusive interview with one of our correspondents in
Lagos on Thursday, said the team of the union that met with the
government on Tuesday did not reach any agreement with the Federal Government.

Asked when the strike would then be called off, Ogunyemi
said, “Our members said they want to see evidence of satisfactory
implementation of all they have proposed before the strike can be called off.”

On Tuesday, ASUU met with the Federal Government officials
including the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, as well as his Labour
and Employment counterpart, Chris Ngige.

After their discussions, Ngige explained what the Federal
Government was offering to the union.

He said the Office of the Accountant-General of the
Federation and the Ministry of Finance had confirmed with evidence that N15.4bn
had been released to public universities.

But ASUU president recalled that last year, the government
promised to release funds for the revitalisation of public universities, which
was one of the demands of the union, but failed to do so.

Ogunyemi stated, “As for the proposal, it can be
disaggregated. There are items there that require implementation. If they are
setting up a committee on state universities, and they actually do, it is not
something we need to agree on. It is about action.

“If they have implemented it, it is off the list. If the
government says it will pay a shortfall of salaries on a certain date, and the
date comes and they release the money, it is also implementation. There is no
agreement on the matter.

“On the revitalisation fund, we presented to the government
that five tranches of N220bn each were outstanding. The government has not said
it will release one, even if it is spread over a period of one year.
There is no agreement on that. What they are offering is not even up to one
tranche.

“Last year, they promised to release the fund but they did
not till November when the strike began. Long story short, our members are
saying they do not want promises again, what they want is action,
implementation or disbursement of funds. The government must act in a way to
convince the union that agreement has not been set aside; to show that
government has not set aside the agreement, they should release one tranche.”

He explained that in order to forestall a situation ASUU and
the government would restart negotiations on arrears of earned academic
allowances, both sides agreed that “it would be mainstreamed into the 2019
budget.”

According to him, such an agreement was reached last year,
but he said the government failed to honour it.

Ogunyemi stated, “We are going to have a discussion on
when to commence renegotiation because there are still grey areas. If the
government can substantially address these issues, we will be more confident to
face our members on the way forward. For now, the feeler we are getting is that
our members do not actually want to accept this government proposal from us.

“They said they would pay the shortfall of salary arrears of
what was removed from workers’ salaries. There are 20 universities
identified. The money will be available by January 18. It is around the corner
and we will see if it will come.”

In the meantime, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
on Thursday announced its readiness to implement an effective commercial
framework that would halt the export of propane and butane, which are major
components in the production of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, also known as cooking
gas.

NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division,
Ndu Ughamadu, said the move to stop the export of propane and butane which is
anchored by the Crude Oil Marketing Division of the corporation would enable
the oil firm to boost the supply of LPG to the domestic market, thereby leading
to a natural downward slide in the price of the product across the country.

The NNPC spokesperson quoted the Group General Manager, COMD
of the corporation, Mele Kyari, in a statement issued in Abuja as saying,
“Currently some of our butane and propane entitlements are exported largely due
to a lack of vessels to make sure that these things come into the domestic
markets and the absence of a commercial framework.

“What we are going to do is to make sure we put the right
commercial framework in place so that those exports are converted into domestic
consumption.”

Kyari said the division was working in concert with
stakeholders to create an environment for in-country production of LPG and
cessation of export of the country’s equity butane and propane entitlements due
to the absence of in-country vessels for transport and other considerations.

He said the goal of the division in 2019 was to complete the automation process in the marketing and sale of Nigerian crude oil grades which teed-off in 2017, noting that all hands must be on deck to achieve 100 per cent end-to-end conclusion of the process.

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